Mechanism for transferring articles and wrappers to turrets



A. G. ROSE Oct; 23, 1951 MECHANISM FOR TRANSFERRING ARTICLES AND WRAPPERS T0 TURRETS Filed May 1, 1947 INVENTOR AGROSE V v E 5 ATTORNEYS Patented Oct. 23, 1951 MECHANISM FOR TRANSFERRING AIR/PI CLES AND WRAPPERS T TURRETS Alfred German Rose, Gainsborough, England, assignor to Rose Brothers (Gainsborough) Limited, Gainsborough, England, a British com- Application May 1, 1947, Serial No. 745,277 In Great Britain May 16, 1946 6 Claims.

This invention relates to machines for wrapping sweets or other articles, the machines being of the same general kind (hereinafter referred to as the kind described) as that described in United States Patent No. l,735,978,'granted to me November 19, 1929. The invention is particularly concerned with the mechanism for transferring the sweets from a feed support to the pockets of the movable carrier member. The specification mentioned above describes an apparatus in which a movable abutment is operable during the forward stroke of a transfer pusher to engage the rear face of the wrapper immediately behind the sweet, the abutment being spring-controlled and operated in such a manner that, during the transfer of the sweet across the gap between the feed table and the mouth of the receiving pocket, the sweet and its wrapper are resiliently gripped between the opposed faces of the pusher and the abutment.

It has been found, however, that the sweets, during wrapping, are apt to be crushed by impact with the abutment, particularly when they are slightly large. Also, when the sweets are slightly small, a further difficulty arises in that proper control is apt to be lost during its transfer. The difficulty ofcrushing becomes serious, particularly at high speed, when dealing with sweets consisting of a relatively thin and hard casing and a soft inside, since the casings of such sweets are apt to be very brittle.

According to the invention, these difiiculties are considerably lessened if not entirely overcome, by providing a wrapping machine of the kind described, wherein the sweet-engaging tip of the movable abutment is attached to the body portion of the abutment by means of an intermediate portion of rubber or like material. The rubber portion is conveniently bonded to the remaining portions so that the abutment is, in effect, an integral whole. By these means, the sweet-engaging tip of the abutment is given an inherent resilience in addition to that resulting from the spring control of the abutment as a whole.

The abutment may, as described in the speci fication mentioned above, be made in two parts lying one on each side of the carrier member and so arranged that their sweet-engaging tips pass through the adjacent pocket of the carrier 5 member during the transfer of the sweet into the pocket, the carrier member being so shaped that when the abutment is in its retracted position the pockets of the carrier member clear the abutment another pocket to the feeding station. Also, the two parts of the abutment may be combined for simultaneous movement with the rear wrappergripping elements in the same manner as that described in the above mentioned specification. In

such a case, the rubber intermediate portion forms the connection between the abutment and the rear wrapper-gripping element. The sweetengaging tips of such an abutment are set slightly in front of the plane containing the faces of the rear wrapper-gripping elements, e.-g., by an amount equal to the difference between a sweet of normal width and one of minimum size within the range for which the apparatus is designed,-

casing and a soft centre, quite a soft rubber may be necessary.

The invention will now be described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is an elevation of a portion of a machine for wrapping sweets.

Figure 2 is a plan view of the apparatus shown in Figure 1.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary side view illustrating the abutment tips.

'Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary plan view illustrating the abutment tips and cooperative gripping elements.

The machine is of the same general construction as that describedin the above mentioned specification and it will only be necessary, therefore, to describe such constructional features as are necessary for a clear understanding of the present invention, reference being made to the above mentioned specification for further details.

Referring to the drawings, sweets I l are transferred in succession from a feed channel l2 to suecessive pockets of a carrier'member l3 by a re-v ciprocating pusher M, the carrier member I3 with the movement of the pusher [4. Between each stroke of the pusher l4, a wrapper I6 is fed into a position between the sweet about to be transferred and the adjacent pocket of the carduring rotation of the carrier member to bring rier member l3 so that the sweet II and wrapper wrapper-gripping elements disposed one pair on each side of the carrier member 3,- each pair-consisting of a rear gripping element and 'a front gripping element IS. The front gripping elements l8 are each constituted by a batch. of thin leaf springs and each element is carried-on an arm I9 extending from a boss 2| freely mounted on a common shaft 22, the two bosses 2| being. connected for simultaneous motion by 'a bridge.

piece 23. One of the bosses 2| is providedwith an arm 24 on which is freely mounted a cam roller 26 arranged to bear against the face of a rotatable cam 21 mounted on a cam shaft 28, the roller 26 being maintained 'in engagement with the surface of the cam 21 by means of a spring 29.

The rear gripping elements I! are mounted on arms 3| extending from a common supporting member 32 freely mounted on the shaft 22, the supporting member 32 being provided with an arm 33 on which is freely mounted a cam roller 34 arranged to bear against the face of a rotatable cam 36 secured to the cam shaft 28. The cam roller 34 is maintained in engagement with the cam 36 by means of a spring 31.

Arranged in the path of movement of the sweets during their transfer from the feed channel l2 to the carrier member I3, is an abutment consistsing of two abutment parts 4| attached respectively to the rear gripping elements H by means of intermediate portions 42 of rubber, the intermediate portions 42 being provided with tongues 43 which are let into correspondingly shaped recesses in the parts H and 4|, respectively. The intermediate portions 42 are bonded to the parts 4| and elements respectively, so that each part 4.| and the corresponding element H are, in effect, an integral whole.

The timing of the apparatus is such that, at the same time as, or slightly .before, the forward edge of the sweet reaches the plane of feed of the wrappers I6 under the action of the pusher M, a wrapper I6 is grippedbetween the front and rear gripping elements I8 and I1, and the forward face of the sweet. strikes the two abutment parts 4| with the wrapper I3 disposed be tween .the sweet and theabutment parts. During the movement of. the sweet fromthat position into the adjacent-pocket of the carrier member |3, the sweet abutmentparts4|', and

the front and rear elements |8 and |1, all move together with the wrapper l6 resiliently gripped between the front face of the sweet and the abutment part 4| and also between the gripping elements H and I8.

The sweet-engaging tips of the abutment parts 4| are set in front of the plane containing the faces of the rear elements H by an amount equal to the difference between a sweetof normal width and one of minimum size within the rangefor which the apparatus is designed, so that the abut-- ment parts 4| will be slightly deflected by a sweet of normal width when it reaches the normal plane of feed of the wrappers, while a sweet of minimum width will be just gripped between the pusher I4 and the abutment-parts 4|. Itwill thus be seen that full control of the sweet is exercised during its transfer from the feed channel [2 to the pocket of the carrier member |3 despite possible slight variation in the width of successive sweets.

The cams 21 and 36 are so shapedand timed that, assoon as the toffee II is positioned in the pocket of the carrier member l3, the arms 3| move further forward towards the axis of the carrier member I3 so as to move the abutment parts 4| clear ofthejaws of the pockets, while the arms l9 are caused to move in the opposite direction so as to cause the front elements l8 to clear the path of movement of the partially folded wrapper in the pocket of the carrier member |3 during the movement of that member to bring the next succeeding pocket to the feeding position; when the cycle of operations is repeated.

I'claim:

1; Awrapping machine comprising a feed support, a movable carrier member, means for transferring the articles to be wrapped in succession from said support to separate pockets in saidcarrier member, means for feeding wrappers successively across the mouths of said pocket so that the wrappers are carried forward with the articles into said pockets, and a movable abut-,

ment comprising an article-engaging tip between which and said transferring means the articles and wrappers are gripped as they, are transferred; a body portion and an intermediate portion of rubber or like material connecting the end of said tip opposite to the-article engaging portion thereof to the body portion, said end being remote from the article-engaging portion so that the tip constitutes a resilient arm.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the rubber portion is bonded tothe article-engaging tipand the body-portion.

3. Apparatus according to claim2, wherein the abutment is made in two parts lying one on each side of the carrier member and each comprising an article-engaging tip connected to a body portion by an intermediate portion of rubber or like material, the article-engaging tips being so arranged that they pass through the adjacent pocket of the carrier member during the transfer of the article to the pocket,

4. Apparatus according 'to claim-l, wherein the abutment is made in two parts lying one on each side of the carrier member and each comprising an article-engaging tip connected to a body portion by aninter-mediate portion of rubber or like material, the article-engaging tips being so arranged that they pass through the adjacent pocketof the carrier'member duringthe transfer of thearticle-to the pocket.

5. A wrapping machine comprising a feed support, a movable carrier member, means for transferring the articles. tobe'wrapped'in succession from said--support to separate-pockets iii-said carrier member, means for-feeding'wrappers suc-' cessively across the mouths :of said pockets so that the wrappers are-carried forward-with thearticles intosaid pockets, a movable 1 abutment I comprising a pair of article-engaging tips lying oneon eachsideof the carrier member and between which andsaid transferring-means the articles and wrappers. are gripped as they are transferred, a pairof body portions and a pair of intermediate portions of rubberor likematerial. eachconnectingthe-endof a tip opposite to the article-engaging portion thereof, T to 'a body por tion, said end being 1 remote from the articleengagingportion-of the-tip so: t ha-t,- the tips'ea'ch 7Q, constitute a resilient,arm,.the-tips being so. ar-v ranged that they pass through the adjacent pockets of the carrier member during the trans- REFERENCES CITED fer of the articles to the pocket, and front and The followin eferen are of record in the rear wrapper-gripping elements between which file of this t each wrapper is gripped during the transferring 5 action, said rear gripping elements being con- UNITED STATES PATENTS stituted by parts of the body portion of the Number Name Date abutment 1,351,025 Cooper Aug. 31, 1920 6. Apparatus accordlng to 6181111 5, wherein the 702 176 Smith t 1 Feb 12 1 article-engaging tip of the two parts of the abut- 10 1,955,493 Grover 1934 ment member are set slightly in front of the plane containing the bases of the rear wrappergripping elements.

ALFRED GERMAN ROSE. 

